The Raincoats

One of the more unusual bands to rise from the British punk explosion of the 1970s, the Raincoats were post-punk before punk's first act had fully played out; they had little interest in the speed or velocity of the Clash or the Sex Pistols, instead embracing a more open and dynamic approach which incorporated purposefully chaotic arrangements that made the members' lack of instrumental experience a virtue rather than a drawback. They also occasionally employed acoustic instruments (particularly violin) as well as percussion that showed influences of reggae and world music, and sang lyrics that dealt with feminism and personal politics in a direct yet non-dogmatic manner. the Raincoats were formed in 1977 by Gina Birch and Ane de Silva, then students at the Hornsey School of Art in London (Birch was working in video and conceptual art, and de Silva was interested in three-dimensional painting). Fascinated by the "anyone can do it" spirit of punk, Birch and de Silva decided to form a group, despite having little musical experience, and played their first show in November 1977. Initially, Birch played bass and sang, de Silva played guitar and sang, Ross Crighton played guitar and Nick Turner played drums, but within a year, the band had reverted to an all-female lineup with Palmolive (formerly of the Slits) replacing Turner on drums and Crighton out in favor of violinist Vicki Aspinall. In the spring of 1979, the Raincoats released their first single, "Fairytale in the Supermarket" through the seminal British indie label Rough Trade, and their self-titled debut album appeared later the same year. Not long after the album came out, Palmolive left the band, and Ingrid Weiss became their new percussionist; this lineup recorded the 1981 album Odyshape, which included guest appearances from Robert Wyatt and Charles Hayward of This Heat. In 1982, during a tour of the United States, the Raincoats performed several shows at New York City's celebrated performance art space The Kitchen; the shows were recorded, and the New York-based cassette-only label ROIR Records released an album drawn from this material, The Kitchen Tapes, in 1983. By their own admission, Birch and de Silva had frequent differences in creative and personal opinions (de Silva once quipped to reporter Maddy Costa, "We broke up after every record," to which Birch replied, "We broke up after every gig"), and the Raincoats's uncompromising confrontational sound prevented them from enjoying much more than a cult following. After the release of the album Moving in 1984, the group broke up. In 1992, de Silva was working in an antique shop in London when she one day received an unexpected visitor -- Kurt Cobain, who was visiting London and hoping to replace his badly worn copy of the first Raincoats album. After stopping by the Rough Trade retail shop, he was told de Silva worked nearby, and he wrote about their meeting and his love of her music in the liner notes to the Nirvana rarities compilation Incesticide. This helped spark a new interest in the Raincoats, and with the help of Cobain and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth (a fellow Raincoats fan), the Raincoats' three studio albums were reissued by DGC Records. Cobain also persuaded the Raincoats to reunite so they could open some shows for Nirvana, but Cobain's suicide prevented those concerts from taking place. However, in 1994, Birch and de Silva assembled a new version of the Raincoats and recorded an EP, Extended Play, which appeared on Smells Like Records (a label founded by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley), and they followed with a full-length album, 1996's Looking in the Shadows, which was released by DGC in America and Rough Trade in Europe. Since then, Birch and de Silva have occasionally performed and recorded as the Raincoats when their schedules permit; they also formed their own label, We Three Records, to reissue material from their back catalog, and have collaborated on multimedia art projects.

Fairytale In The Supermarket Lyrics

It makes no difference
Night or day
No one teaches you how to live
Cups of tea are a clock
a clock a clock a clock
The times I forgot but never forgot
I don't know the books that you read
But you don't say that
love never externalizes
You're rereading a book
to feel reassured
By the life of your favorite hero

But don't worry, honey don't worry
This is just a fairytale
Happening in the supermarket

Odyshape Lyrics

chorus:
She looks
She looks embarrassed, embarrassed

She looks in mirror,
In magazine
She looks embarrassed, embarrassed

(I’m not glamorous or polished
In fact I’m no ornament
it could be my body shape
I wonder if I’ll ever look right)
Blot on the landskape, unrefined
Quite out of place
Her nose is too big
Maybe operation
Her waist too wide.
Her hair is not shining.
Oh! It isn’t fair she isn’t fair
You’re walking sad
You’re looking bad
you’re talking sad
You’re looking bad
Hung up for fractional inches
Hung up for the cloth that pinches
Do I measure up to your expectations?
Am I owed any explanations?
Hung up for fractional inches
Hung up for the cloth that pinches
Do I measure up to your expectations?
Am I owed any explanations?
You’re walking sad
You’re looking bad
you’re talking sad
You’re looking bad
Blot on the landscape, unrefined
Quite out of place
Her nose is too big
Maybe operation
Her waist too wide.
Her hair is not shining.
Oh! It isn’t fair she isn’t fair...

No Looking Lyrics

He put sugar in his coffee
He stirred coffee with a teaspoon
He poured milk into sweetened coffee
He lifted the cup up to his lips
He drank coffee 'til was empty
He put cup back onto saucer
Without looking at me

He took cigarette from his packet
He lit cigarette with his matches
He blew smoke rings with the smoke

chorus:
Without looking at me
Without talking to me

He put his hat onto his head
He put raincoat 'cos it was raining
Oh he did have no umbrella
And he left in the rain
Without looking at me
Without talking to me

Silently no looking at
Speaking leaving me
Without looking
Talking silently
No looking
Leaving without going

I'm not looking I'm not talking
I'm not looking I'm not talking
I'm not looking I'm not talking...

No looking at me no looking at me
No looking at me no looking at me
No no looking no no looking
No no looking at me...

Shouting Out Loud Lyrics

Shouting out loud
A woman alone
A man with fears
Outside at night
Singing alone
What's due to him
What can I say?

What can I say?
What do I feel?
You're always away
Can't fall asleep
You keep me awake
Come to me
The day is long
I walk along
The path is wet
Come to me
Cars don't stop
A scar is open
I make mistakes
Take me home

What will you do?
When I lie down
And look around
And see the walls
Or find a cloud
Or stare alone

Black and White Lyrics

Is this love when I see your face on the rails?
Is this love when I see your face on the rails?
When the black and white landscape makes me write this black and white song?
Is this love when I fear you talking to me?
Is this love when I fear you talking to me
And discover - it was just a longing turned into a black and white song?
Is this love when I don't know who you are?
Is this love when I don't know who you are
And have to look out of the window to write this black and white song?..

The Void Lyrics

When I looked at the streets
And when they looked at me
The void The void
The void could only stop being
When I....123, 321, 123, 321
mil, mil
when I looked at the streets
And when you were talking
When I tried to think
When I tried to think